Peter Marinello (born 20 February 1950) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

Career

Hibernian

Marinello started his career at Hibernian, and could play either as a centre forward or

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was regarded as being talented enough there that he was dubbed "the next

George Best George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest p ...

" by the British press.Hey Hey Marinello
BBC Sport, 21 May 2007An email conversation with Peter Marinello: 'On my day I would like to say I was as good as Ryan Giggs'
The Independent, 9 April 2007

Arsenal

In January 1970, a month before his 20th birthday, he joined Arsenal for £100,000, a club record fee at the time. The acquisition of Marinello also marked the first time that Arsenal had paid a six-figure sum for a player. He went on to score on his debut against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 10 January 1970. However, a combination of a newly adopted 'celebrity party lifestyle' and a knee injury led to a dip in his footballing form and meant that he was not a regular in the team: he was not part of the squad for the final of Arsenal's Inter-Cities Fairs Cup triumph of

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, but he contributed four appearances during the run, including the semi-final first leg against

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

. He only played three matches in their 1970–71 Double-winning campaign. He subsequently played eight league matches in 1971–72 and thirteen in 1972–73. In total he played 51 matches for Arsenal, scoring 5 goals. Marinello left Arsenal in July 1973 after failing to agree a new contract.

Later playing career

He next played for

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

followed by Motherwell,

Canberra City Civic is the city centre or central business district of Canberra. "Civic" is a common name for the district, but it is also called Civic Centre, City Centre, Canberra City and Canberra, and its official division name is ''City''. Canberra's Ci ...

, Fulham, Phoenix Inferno, Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle.

After playing

Though he retired a wealthy man, a failed business venture left him

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

in 1994. He now runs an amateur football club and lives in Bournemouth,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. He released an autobiography, ''Fallen Idle'', in 2007.

Honours

;Hibernian *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

: runner-up 1968–69

References

External links

Statistics on Gunnermania

Marinello talks to Arseblog.com's 'Arsecast'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marinello, Peter 1950 births Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Association football wingers Scottish footballers Hibernian F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Canberra City FC players Fulham F.C. players Phoenix Inferno players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Broxburn Athletic F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players National Soccer League (Australia) players Scottish Football League representative players Scotland under-23 international footballers Scottish expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in Australia Expatriate soccer players in the United States Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States